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Xau-Tak: God of the Horrors

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Wahisietel
Oct Member 2005

Wahisietel

Posts: 3,426 Adamant Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
Uncle Harper said :
Hopefully Mod Raven chimes in to this question: With all the build up in the Sliske's endgame series (Nomads elegy, Kindred Spirts, Children of Mah, and endgame), why hasn't there been any new Xau content released lately? We are peppered with all kinds of Xau references in the years big Arc and then...nothing.

Xau did seem to get some fairly extensive lore with Memorial to Guthix (plus Deathbeard's Demise gave a bit too). The lack of references since then is likely down to the lack of meaningful content in general. You never were our brightest star, Khazard. 'Vermin slaughtered like lambs'? What does that even mean?

30-Jul-2017 01:20:01

Uncle Harper
Jul Member 2015

Uncle Harper

Posts: 396 Silver Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
Wahisietel said :
Uncle Harper said :
Hopefully Mod Raven chimes in to this question: With all the build up in the Sliske's endgame series (Nomads elegy, Kindred Spirts, Children of Mah, and endgame), why hasn't there been any new Xau content released lately? We are peppered with all kinds of Xau references in the years big Arc and then...nothing.

Xau did seem to get some fairly extensive lore with Memorial to Guthix (plus Deathbeard's Demise gave a bit too). The lack of references since then is likely down to the lack of meaningful content in general.

I may have missed it, what part of Deathbeard's demise was related to Xau? Also, I know a lot of people feel like the Memorial to Guthix bit was about the parasite queen, I personally think it was Xau but neither theory has been confirmed. I have seen the dark universe yawning, where the black planets roll without aim;
Where they roll in their horror unheeded, without knowledge or lustre or name.

01-Aug-2017 14:35:07

AesirWarrior
Jan Member 2021

AesirWarrior

Posts: 1,060 Mithril Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
Uncle Harper said :
Wahisietel said :
Uncle Harper said :
Hopefully Mod Raven chimes in to this question: With all the build up in the Sliske's endgame series (Nomads elegy, Kindred Spirts, Children of Mah, and endgame), why hasn't there been any new Xau content released lately? We are peppered with all kinds of Xau references in the years big Arc and then...nothing.

Xau did seem to get some fairly extensive lore with Memorial to Guthix (plus Deathbeard's Demise gave a bit too). The lack of references since then is likely down to the lack of meaningful content in general.

I may have missed it, what part of Deathbeard's demise was related to Xau? Also, I know a lot of people feel like the Memorial to Guthix bit was about the parasite queen, I personally think it was Xau but neither theory has been confirmed.

Look at how many Xau-Tak references we have in this thread, now look at how many are "confirmed". We don't *really* know he's the power behind the Pirate series' ressurections, we don't *really* know whether he's connected to the Skeletal Horror, and we don't *really* know if Obsidian slabs or anything like that is related to Xau-Tak. None of it's been fully confirmed.

But I'd say it's pretty damn likely. You want there to be explicit Xau-Tak content with no subtlety? That would kind of go against how this entire thing started. -
I have noticed your kind does tend to blindly stumble forward towards danger simply because it exists. What is your word for that?
- We call it being a hero.

02-Aug-2017 00:22:19

Tlamovec

Tlamovec

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I'd see Xau as a ''opposite anima''. He was born when elder gods started to create anima in first cycle and grew each one. He was attracted to them like + is to - (being a being to balance their existence with his ''nonexistence'' ) and tried to eat them, but managed only to damage Mah, eating her ''memories and sanity'', not being strong enough to take it on material level.

And I 'd think that Amascut went insane when she met him on freneskae and saw what he did and could do, that's why she is so obsessed with corrupting anima souls and turning a world in a corpse anti-anima swamp - he took a root in her.


So more souls - anima is there, xau is stronger, because his presence is a background upon which we can exist, that's why only defense against him is nihilism :D

25-Aug-2017 05:11:52

Gamez X
Sep Member 2014

Gamez X

Posts: 885 Gold Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
I posted this on a different thread but i think i've finally figured out a highly probable origin of xau tak

Ever since the cosmology reveals in the runefest live streams i've been doing some work on making some design models for the universe and its planets. When i came to the ancient ice planet leng (where glacors come from), i looked to the saturn moon encaladus for inspiration. This is a world where there is a very thick crust of ice (like earths land crust) but with a global sub-surface ocean underneath it (like earths liquid lava outer core/mantle). This is a VAST and dark ocean that never see's sunlight. Plus with recent reveals its hinted towards these lower planets being the last survivors of the previous universe

Now look at the inspiration of xau tak, we all know he's based on cthulhu from lovecraft novels. This is common knowledge, but what some people might not know is the word leng is also a location in lovecraft novels! So here we have an ancient dark and cold planet with a mysterious past likely holding a hidden global ocean. And we also have an ancient dark and foul squid like creature also with a mysterious past, and both the world and the character are taken from the same novels for inspiration

Put simply i think its highly likely that xau tak is from the global ocean underneath the surface of the ancient planet leng at the bottom end of the universe

28-Sep-2017 13:12:59

Sepulchre
Dec Member 2020

Sepulchre

Posts: 3,525 Adamant Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
Gamez X said :
Long explanation about C'thlhu and Leng... I need space.

Put simply i think its highly likely that xau tak is from the global ocean underneath the surface of the ancient planet leng at the bottom end of the universe I agree that this is a probable point of origin for Xau-Tak. The idea that this name is so obviously inspired by the plateau mentioned in half a dozen works of H.P. Lovecraft can't be a coincidence. I don't believe in coincidences that big.

A more interesting thing to note is that in the C'thulhu mythos, Leng is actually a "moving" (it is referenced as being in different places in every instance) plateau of ice that is said to be where the barriers between realities break, where one can enter different realities. In the first reference, it was stated in the Necronomicon that Leng is inhabited by corpse-eating men. I don't know why, but it makes me think of the... corpse-oceans of Xau-Tak. It is possible that Xau-Tak is a literal flesh-eater who somehow obtained godhood aeons ago, and has gone from feeding on flesh to feeding on the life-force of the world itself, hence why he was called a "parasite" by Guthix. And that his followers feed on corpses, because those are his people. Hence why the worlds he has taken are "corpse-oceans," as said by V.

You could be on to something, here. A
World Guardian
must learn to find
Balance
in themselves.
Only then can they
Control
themselves and forge their own
Fate .

04-Oct-2017 19:58:09

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08-Oct-2017 23:04:56

Vereor Umbra
Nov Member 2006

Vereor Umbra

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My interpretation of Xau-Tak is that she is a god of entropy, failure, and death. If you're familiar with Warhammer, i view her in a similar vein as the god Nurgle. In Warhammer, Nurgle is the god of disease, death, and decay. No matter how strong you are, age will rob you of your strength. No matter how strong you build your walls, someone will knock them down, or erosion will render them moot. And most importantly, you are mortal, and no matter how far and how fast you run, you will die. You cant stop this, it will happen. You may plead and beg the gods for mercy, but such mercy is fleeting, and only delays the inevitable.

In my view, Xau-Tak similarly represents entropy, and the inevitability of death, but more of a spiritual and emotional death than the physical one Nurgle more closely represents. Where Nurgle is represented by disease and plagues riddling through what was once a utopian society, Xau-Tak represents the grand emotional failure of a warlord's meticulous battle plan and it's political fallout, a coup against a once glorious and beloved regime, the failure of a harvest to feed the hungry and the desperation it created, the crushing weight of broken dreams and grand ambitions, the inability to prevent a tragedy, and of course, the inevitability of it all. Xau-Tak is the incarnation of the phrase "all good things must come to an end."

The corpse oceans are what remains of those who submit. Who give in to the mounting, crushing weight of existence and submit to Xau-Tak. They become husks, vessels broken in spirit and body, forced to writhe in eternal torment, forever cursed with the thoughts of "what might have been."

Her true followers are those who not only accept, but are empowered by the meaninglessness of it all. Nihilists, essentially. They were the lost. They were the forgotten. Now they have returned.

11-Nov-2017 00:31:55 - Last edited on 11-Nov-2017 00:34:15 by Vereor Umbra

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